Maths skills adds £2k to pupils future earnings

Children with top maths skills at the age of 10 will go on to earn considerably more as adults than classmates who are just average in the subject, new research suggests.

A pupil who scores highly in the subject can expect to receive around 2,100 pounds extra each year by the time they reach 30, the report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies claims.

Researchers also found evidence of a wage premium for schoolchildren with good reading skills, although the effect was considerably less marked than for maths.

The research looked at the link between the reading and maths score of pupils born in April 1970 at the age of 10 and their earnings at the ages of 30, 34 and 38.

It emerged that a child who scored in the top 15 per cent of maths scores when they were 10 were likely to earn around 7.3 per cent more when they were 30 than a similar child who gained a mid-ranking score, the Telegraph reported.

This is equivalent to around 2,100 pounds extra in annual salaries, the study suggests.